Under the title "Witness to 9/11 Events in a Pentagon Child Care Center: The Story of Two American Soldiers," the Al-Hurra website reported that just 180 meters away from the Pentagon building, Hannah Born and her younger sister Heids were at the Department of Defense's child development center when American Airlines Flight 77 crashed into the building on September 11, 2001. Heather does not remember the events of 9/11 as she was only four months old, while Hannah has some scattered memories since she was three years old. However, these events, along with other factors, inspired them to join the U.S. military to serve their country, according to a report by CBS News.
Hannah recounts, "I was at the daycare playing and dancing with some classmates, we were playing with dance ribbons, then I remember that we were gathered in the hallway." Hannah and Heids were in a building within the Pentagon grounds, on the other side of where the plane crashed. Fear and panic ensued after the plane struck the western side of the Pentagon and fires erupted. The attack on the Pentagon did not result in any deaths or injuries among the children at the center. However, the child development center was closed in 2004 due to safety concerns.
Hannah shares, "I started to feel panic especially after we were evacuated from the building, as there were a lot of people leaving at the same time, along with the annoying sound of fire alarms and the sounds of emergency vehicles, as well as the overhead noise from helicopters." She adds that military personnel quickly arrived to evacuate the daycare, "They placed the children in cribs and carried them to a park next to the Potomac River."
Two decades after these events, Hannah states, "I don’t think we really know any of the names of the people involved (in the rescues), but I just hope they know how their actions inspired me and my sister and pushed us forward to make the decision to join the military to serve our country." Hannah graduated from the U.S. Air Force Academy in 2019, while her younger sister Heather is a non-commissioned officer in the Naval Academy Class of 2023. Hannah is currently studying at Georgetown University’s graduate school, focusing on data science and analytics, and hopes to take on search-and-rescue missions.
The sisters’ parents, who also have military backgrounds, were not at the Pentagon on September 11; their mother, retired Brigadier General Dana Born, was at Joint Base Anacostia-Bolling at the time. In the days following the attack, their father took them to a hill overlooking the Pentagon and explained to the girls what had happened that day. According to their mother, Hannah, as a child, spent hours drawing pictures of her experience that day as she tried to understand what had occurred. She adds, "We sat beside her the whole time to support her while also answering her questions as she tried to connect everything to understand exactly what happened."
Over time, the drawing helped Hannah become less anxious as she gradually connected the memories from that horrific day, which was even difficult for adults to comprehend. Ultimately, those events, along with their upbringing in military bases, inspired the sisters to follow in their parents' footsteps in the military. Hannah states, "So many lives were forever altered because of the events of that day and all that came after, so I think for us, it’s always about remembering and figuring out what we can do to best honor those who died."
Recently, Hannah and Heather visited the Pentagon Memorial, commemorating the 184 victims, which remains a place to remember each victim of the horrific attack.
